Dennis is home!

Kate and Brock in the fort they made for their sleepover tonight
(Yes, the dog is wearing a T-shirt, and don't bug me about it :)

Kate and her daddy play thumb war with the

sumo wrestlers Den brought her from Boise

I can happily say we are a complete family living under one roof again! I drove over to Boise on the 1st in Den's mom's truck... what a fun rig to drive... and brought him home on the 2nd. It's been wonderful to have him here, especially now that everything got unpacked today, and the house looks back to some semblance of normal. (Is semblance a real word?) Life is certainly not normal, but it's easier now that we're together.

Although Den had been told he had a job in Yakima, he was told on the Wednesday before he moved that the union wouldn't accept his transfer. Lovely. Anyway, to make a very long, frustrating story short, he is currently a Boise technician on loan to Pasco for six months. After that, we don't know what the heck is going to happen. Pasco is part of the Tri-Cities, and it takes him about an hour and a half to get there and another hour and a half to get home... although this week he's had two nights with serious accidents on the freeway, leaving him a little stranded and a lot late. We're really frustrated with it, but we're making it through. Childcare is the biggest issue right now, because once I start working nights, no daycare opens early enough for him to drop Kate off before he leaves and before I get home from work. We're working on having someone come to the house those three mornings a week, but we haven't got anything set yet. Pray, please!!!! On top of being a man on loan, Den has discovered that none of the technologies he specializes in are here in this part of Washington, so he's bound to get a little bored here soon. We're hoping some new stuff will be coming here within the next few years so he can use his brain again!

Kate's doing great for the most part. School is going well, I think. She's happy and has great friends. She really misses the ones we left behind in Boise, though.

It's a different world here as far as parents in the classroom. I'm not needed as I have been in the past, and it's hard to not know the kids she goes to school with. As my schedule gets more set, I'm going to try to push my way in there once every other week or so just so we know what's going on in there.

Our awesome neighbor, Amy, came down this afternoon and cut our hair and colored mine. It's so fun to have real color (not just something I mixed up out of a box from the grocery store!) I've cut most of my hair off again, but it's not short like before. I determined it's really hard to have hair in your face while trying to place a urinary catheter in a laboring mommy, so I chopped it off. Too much info, I know, but that's the reality of my life!

Things are really good at work. I've gone through a rough period of adjusting to taking two patients at a time. Kind of had to mourn the kind of nursing I'm used to giving to my patients and accept that it's just really different here. I can only do the best I can do, and I'll continue to give 110% while I'm there. I'm just getting accustomed to the fact that it is how it is. Since I've gotten over my slump, I'm enjoying it and still loving the people I work with. I think most L&D nurses are just nice people. I'm sure now that I've said that, some labor nurse will kill her husband and adorable children while they sleep, and we'll all hear it on the news.

Right now, I need to be cleaning the house, entering receipts in Microsoft Money, finishing this great book I'm reading, or entertaining my youngun and her handsome guest. Despite all of this, I am lazily sitting at the computer typing about our silly life and listening to said handsome guest obnoxiously and endearingly belch in the living room. Needless to say, our daughter is enamored!

The kids want to watch Goosebumps to "get the creeps," so I'm off to read in my big fat chair under my snuggly purple blanket.

Sleep well, my friends!

Cinderella Loves the Bible

I just have to write and tell you about our highly spiritual dog. She so loves God's Word that she proceeded to devour it in just over nine hours while I was gone at work. Growing up in a Christian home, I learned never to treat a Bible disrespectfully. I never sat a water glass on top of one or put it in a place it could be damaged. Today, as I picked up peices of Job's flesh and what I believe may have been the thorn in Paul's side, I begged God's forgiveness at my lack of respect. Of course, I had little idea when I put my well-loved chronological Bible in a Year on the arm of the chair this morning that Cindy was a Christian, let alone a hungry, Bible-eating one. Oh, well. Life goes on, and I think I can still read September through November. There's a large chunk out of November (Paul's thorn, you see), so I may have to purchase a new one then. Alas... God still loves me, and Cindy may make it to Heaven yet.

As for other ventures in life, I adore my new job. I hate orientation, simply because it's humbling to know so little, but that is good for me. The people I work with are fantastic, welcoming, and good at their jobs, and the population here is wonderful. There are so many Spanish-speaking only women, so I'm trying to catch on as I go. I did say, "Ten minutes, more or less" today without any help, and the poor prego senora actually understood me! These women are so gracious and never seem to be frustrated by my lack of ability to understand them. I just adore their sweet natures. For now, I'm working Monday through Friday 7-3:30. I'm really looking forward to getting back to my three 12s, but I'm not sure when that will happen in the orientation process. It's really hard to get up at 5:30 every morning after my fairly lazy summer off.

Kate seems to be blending in here really well. She's making lots of friends at school and still likes her teacher most days. She's started daycare in the mornings since I'm going to work so early. (Thanks for getting up at the butt crack of dawn for us, Deena!) Kate has also started getting to sleep easier, which I attribute to getting her up so early every morning.

Den will be here in TWO WEEKS!!!! We are so excited. It's gone a lot faster than I thought it would so far, so I hope these last couple of weeks don't drag on and on. Plus, I learned there are a few things I can handle around the house, which honestly, I never thought possible. For those of you who don't know, my mom has NEVER pumped her own gasoline, so I come by my spoiled nature honestly. Men are just supposed to do those things, and I'm supposed to clean the house and make babies. The National Feminist Association is currently plotting my assasination.

Alright, I'm off to bed, which currently has clean sheets. YEA!!

Our Interesting Weekend

I'm too tired for wit tonight, so you'll just have to put up with my normal, boring self. Sorry!

I flew to Boise on Thursday... it was a long day, since I had to hop three planes to do it! That's the last time I'll wait until the last minute to buy tickets, I tell ya. It was wonderful to see Den, though, and I also got to have a few minutes with a few of my friends for lunch on Friday. Thanks to Grammy Nygaard for staying with Kate so she could stay in Yakima and go to school! Dennis and I got home late Friday, and Kate sat on her daddy's lap with her arms around him and cried for about 10 minutes. It was precious.

Saturday was supposed to be about lounging around together as a family, but then life happened. Rusty had not been feeling very well while I was gone, so Grandma Shirley took him to the vet. They thought he had an infection and gave him some antibiotics. When he wasn't feeling tons better early Saturday afternoon, I spent a few minutes on the floor with him and discovered a nasty abscess underneath his right armpit. So, we ended up spending the afternoon at the emergency vet spending a lot of money we don't have to learn that he'd most likely been bitten by a black widow or a brown recluse. He's doing a bit better now after some sub q fluids and a day of strong antibiotics and anti-inflammatories. We're also dressing his ouchie regularly and making him wear Kate's t-shirts to protect it. He's still not himself, really lazy and not moving very well. I'm pretty sure he still has a high fever. But, he is eating and drinking and peeing today, so we're hopeful!

We had an amazing BBQ last night at Mom's. Jim and Trishelle and the kids were there too. It is so nice to all be together again!

Kate even went to sleep really easy last night (YEA), but the she woke up throwing up at 10 and puked for the rest of the night. It was a blast... washer and dryer running all night and pretty much no sleep. The poor kid was so miserable. Den and I tag-teamed and both slept on and off. Kate didn't get much at all. We had a little lunch planned for Dad's 60th today, but that got nixed, obviously! Kate was feeling well enough this evening that we went to dinner with Uncle Denny and Aunt Judy. She didn't eat much and still doesn't feel perfect, but at least none of the rest of us are puking!

So, that is the extent of our special weekend together as a family. Not exactly as planned, but there was a lot of "togetherness." Den will head back to Boise tomorrow, and we'll plan one more weekend like this before he comes home in early October.

I hope your long weekend is going a little more smoothly! Happy Labor Day!

New pictures

I have yet to figure out how to get these things in here in order, so they're a little haphazard. Hope you enjoy them anyway!



Kate at her first day of 2nd Grade

Posing with Grammie and the new dog, Cindy

(short for Cinderella, poor girl!)

Kate and Cinderella

All dressed and ready to go!

Our purple bedroom. Love it!

The kitchen with OUR stuff in it!

Living room (front door is just to the left)

Living room - what you see when you walk in

Living room, back toward the front door

Our little clown at the Klickitat County Fair

Justin, Tyler, and Kate were in the parade!

Home Sweet Home

Currently, there are four children in my daughter's closet. The oldest, my nephew, Justin, is telling his little brother, Tyler, his cousin, Kate, and the new neighborhood friend, Brock, a terrifying story. Kate has come screaming from the room several times already. We have been to the library, Target, and Burger King today.

The move went beautifully really. We had lots of help on both sides, and we actually had the moving van for only about 30 hours. Considering we had to drive 6.5 hours and sleep during that time, I figure we did okay! Dad Nygaard and Mom Herreid drove over to Kuna to help us on Thursday. We loaded on Friday with our wonderful friends (never mind you stinky ones :), and we drove over Friday afternoon. Uncle Ron, Uncle Denny and Jim were all here to help us unload. My dad spent Saturday afternoon and Sunday fixing and organizing stuff and went home to Goldendale on Sunday. Den headed back hom on Monday after he and his mom did LOTS of small repair projects in the house. Mom Nygaard was here for a few days to help me unpack, and then Carrie came up yesterday to bring me the old china cabinet. She stayed a while to help me hang pictures, so I can say the house is officially all put together now.

I kept Justin and Tyler for last night and tonight until we go down to G-dale for the fair tomorrow. This was the last opportunity for a visit before school started, so we decided to take advantage of it. I had enough toothbrushes for them, but boys underwear is hard to come by at my house, so I'm doing covert laundry during the night!

We're doing the best we can with the house. It's got character and is cute in areas. It has a great living room and kitchen. Unfortunately, it's been cheaply patched up over the years, and there are a lot of small problems that add up. We have a year lease, and we're not sure what we'll do at that point. We'll see, I guess! I'm certainly not looking forward to this moving thing again!

We've already met some of our new neighbors. The ones just next door are amazing, and they have an only child who's seven and in Kate's class!!! His name is Brock, and he is a great kid. We've been spending lots of time with him lately, and I feel good that Kate will already have a good buddy at school.

Lame post, I know, but the kids want to watch the rest of the Pokemon movie, and I am too worn out to resist. How do people parent boys? I simply haven't figured it out. They are cute, but they are loud and energetic and cause extreme adult fatigue!

Have a wonderful weekend, my friends!

Insanity

These are the days when I wonder if God knows what He's doing. Really. He says He won't give us more than we can handle, but He's pushing the limit. Den says I'm only focused so obsessively on the ligistics of moving so I won't have to deal with the part of leaving that I CAN'T control, the fact that I am moving away from my very best friends. I haven't cried much. Can't really. If I start, I'm not exactly sure if I could stop before I created Lake Mandytears and drowned in my own compounded drops of grief. Therefore, I sit here typing a silly blog and loading pictures instead of thinking.

Our lives have been quite the whirlwind for the last week or so. We're getting the final stuff done at the house, but we've also had lots of opportunity to spend time with the people we love so much. Heather and the girls came out and spent Friday and Friday night with us. Then, they threw us a fantastic going away party and gave us beautiful gifts that we will love forever. She says it's so we don't forget them. Fat chance of that, gifts or no.

Den took Kate on a "date" on Sunday afternoon. When he first asked her, she declined, saying, "Daddy, we can't go on a date, because you're my dad!" After he explained that there are several kinds of dates, and Mommy would not be upset in the least, she happily accepted. They went to a movie, fed ducks off a paddle boat in the lagoon at Julia Davis, and then went to Starbucks, where Kate insisted she needed a "cone." Fortunately, patient baristas searched everywhere until Dennis finally spotted the "scones" way up high in the case, and everyone ended up happy. She's still talking about it!

We threw Kate a little going away pool party of her own yesterday. It was a huge success, and lots of little people came to eat hot dogs and pretend they don't pee in the pool. Kate felt loved and encouraged, so it was worth it!

The house has been a little toasty, since the silly air conditioner decided to die the end of last week, but at least it was cooler than it has been, in the 70s instead of the hellish, nasty sweat-inducing, can't breathe type of heat we've been having. Sunday and Monday were the only days of real heat, and Den got the stupid thing fixed Monday night (."thank you, thank you, thank you" say my exhausted sweat glands!)

So today, I have packed the Wii, taken down our bed, put most of our kitchen into Family Dollar boxes, and even taken Kate and the Sanchez boys to Roaring Springs for a few hours. I'm feeling productive, exhausted, exhilarated, and sad. I like it here in podunk Kuna, Idaho. I like our little house and our big backyard and the dairy down the street. I like that there were lawnmower races down Main Street for Kuna Days on Saturday. I love that I have so many amazing friends here. I won't replace you, I promise. May make some new ones, but I won't replace you. So buy Animal Crossing with WiiSpeak for your Wii, get a web cam, or pick up the phone occasionally. I promise to still be here. Love ya'll.




Hera, Kate and Valerie at Kate's pool party

Kate and Hera

Opening gifts from amazing friends at

our going away party

Mandy and most of the Sutton Fam

Mandy and her nutty friends!! Love you guys!

YEA, Kate is riding a two-wheeler (finally)

July Pics

Moving

I stink at this blog thing. I forget it's here. I really do want to keep in touch with ya'll, but remembering is so difficult for me (in general... not just here)!

I have officially discovered what hell is like. Moving. Our home looks like a war zone, empty of all meaningful life but filled with the garbagy remnants of one. The pictures are now off the walls, giving it the feel of the prison cell of a man who cares about no one. The only thing different is the toilets here are clean. I have yet to find the magic box that will fit the adorable yard ornament angel I love so much, so it is currently taking up far too much space in my living room, lest I move away from it while it sheds silent tears under my dying roses this fall. We now have just over 3 weeks until we leave. It's insane how fast time passes when you're leaving so many people you love. I've decided to blame the fact that I now have two homes (Central WA and the Boise area) on Qwest, because it makes me less likely to go postal on my wonderful hubby, who had an un-pass-up-able opportunity to make a good living here almost 14 years ago.

Enough about moving... more about the important stuff! After mom's group on Friday, Heather and the girls spent most of the weekend with us, which was a blast. We cooked and swam and shopped and painted toenails and such. I just love being a girl!

When we're not packing, Kate and I have been indulging in our new addiction, playing Monopoly Deal with the Sanchez fam. If you haven't played, you must start, because there's nothing more fun! Pathetic, I know. You'll see us on Intervention next year after someone who loves us has seen enough.

Kate's been in swimming lessons this week. She has really taken off this year, and lessons in the wave pool at Roaring Springs have really brought it all home. She's actually using strokes now, and is jumping into the deep end, which I had finally given up on ever seeing her do in my lifetime. As Heather commented when Kate convinced Sydney to try doggy paddling last weekend, "Amen for peer pressure!" DO NOT expect me to say that again. It only works for swimming when one is aged 5-7. Otherwise, I will claim I never made that statement!

After swimming yesterday, we went to a lavender farm out in Wilder with some friends. My friend, Melyssa, is in town from Wyoming, and what better to do than bake in the hot sun while lugging around sweating children? Okay, I did not lug mine around, but Melyssa and her sister had to, and sadly, they were sweating so much less than I was. It was beautiful, even if we were standing in our self-made puddles, and the most wonderful hostess even brought us a pot full of ice water and washcloths. God bless ya, Lou!

Den has survived the week, despite 105 degrees yesterday. He's tired when he comes home, so I have consistently asked him to move boxes out to the garage for me just to torture him. Then, we get in the pool, so I guess I'm not as mean as I want to be.

So, posts like this are what happens when you have a stupid migraine and you take stupid pain medication at 12:30 in the stupid morning and get plain stupid. I'm going to bed now. I'll post some pictures in the next few days.

Pictures

Kate at the top of this huge hill of cinders. It was a STEEP hike, and it was so windy! Me and my punkin'

Ester and me

Kate and Adrian

Our friends!

Follow-up from insane last post!

The last post was a little brief about all of the stuff happening in our little world right now, so I have a few minutes to expand. Hope you don't mind. If you don't care, stop reading!

Okay, about our move. We have a cute little house picked out that we're planning on renting in the West Valley area of Yakima. Kate and I will move on August 15th, and we're planning on Den joining us in early to mid-October. He's going to transfer straight across with work, so we don't have to worry about his job. I've applied at Yakima Memorial and at Toppenish. I really want to stay in labor and delivery. I've missed it so much since I left in April. I'm loving the time with Kate (most of the time), but I miss my work. How lucky am I to have a job I'd go to for free? Kate's registered to start school at Apple Valley Elementary, where there are only two second grade classes. How cute is that? When I told her the name of the school, she said, "Well, at least it's an Elementary. I love Elementaries!" Priceless! Anyway, we're all excited and scared and sad all at the same time. We so want to be near our families, but we're going to miss all of the amazing people we know here in Idaho!

A couple of you asked about Kate's sleeping issues. I took her to a pediatric sleep specialist last week, and we've implemented some stuff that's helping. She's having tons of anxiety about going to sleep, and we aren't really sure where it's coming from. She sees a counselor tomorow, and that will continue till we leave. Hopefully, it will help a ton with her fears. At this point, we adore her during the day and are struggling with wanting to hit her over the head with a hammer at night. Whoever said parenting is easy?

The yard sale went great. Made some cash, which was good. We're still trying to sell our universal gym, so if anyone knows of anyone looking, let me know!

We had a blast at Craters of the Moon with the Sanchez fam on Friday. The stinkin' road was closed after we got most of the way there, so we had to backtrack and ended up taking 5 hours to get there. Long trip, but we did okay, and nobody seriously wounded anybody else on the road trip, so the whole thing was a success. Great memories, I tell ya! I'm so glad we were able to do that together. Thanks, guys! I'll post some pictures here in a bit.

Merlin is resting peacefully as a puppycicle in our garage freezer until we can get home to my parents' place to commit him to the Pet Cemetary. I haven't shed a tear over him in over 24 hours now, and I'm darn proud of it. Kate misses him. She and I both desperately want another little dog, but we also know it's stupid to do that when we're getting ready to move. So, I have to bide my time and settle for a warm bag of rice at the foot of my bed for the next few months...

Dad and Mom were here from Saturday night until this morning. It was fun, and they were a HUGE help! They packed up my books, knick knacks, spare bedroom closet, and some pictures while I was out running errands. Then... they hung out with Kate for us for an evening so we could go out and spend some time together. It was wonderful, considering it was basically a blind date. It's been so busy lately, I had forgotten what he looked like. Fortunately, he is as handsome and wonderful as ever, so we decided to continue moving forward in our relationship. That's good, since we've now been married 14 years. Wow!

The Wii is officially hooked up to the TV I bought at a yard sale over the weekend. Kate's loving it, and Den and I are trying to figure it out. The Fit says I am overweight but not yet obese, so I gave it a hug and promised to love it forever. In the future, if it continues to lie to me, I will continue to be happy. If it lies even more and tells me I'm just right, I will run away to Mexico with it.

Last thing. We all appear to be over this silly little flu we had. It was short, not sweet, and may have forever ruined strawberry/banana smoothies for me.

Goodnight!

Pics from the last few months

Kate and her daddy at the Eagle parade

The front of our new house

This will be our kitchen, sans the man, I think!

Kate and her Aunt Carrie on the 4-wheeler

Kate playing at the park during her 1st grade walking field trip of Kuna

Me and my buddy, Heather

Our little family at our friends' son's baptism

Kate and our sweet Merlin

Kate and Kibbles

New at this!

So, I've given up and decided to blog. No, I don't have time. No, I am not naturally funny. Yes, there will be lame attempts at humor, because my life itself requires a sense of it.

There's so much going on right now that I don't even know where to start. Hmmm... we're moving to Washington... my kid doesn't sleep... I'm having a yard sale Saturday and Sunday... we're going with friends to Craters of the Moon on Friday... we had to put Merlin to sleep last Friday night... my parents are coming to visit (I think because they're concerned that I'm about to go off the deep end, which is quite plausible)... and my husband threw up all evening. It's been fun.

On a lighter note, I have recent proof that God exists and loves us. After asking for a Wii for years (okay, months), Kate won a Wii Fit in a drawing last week. When we went in to pick it up, thinking we would just hold onto it until money grows on trees and we could buy the actual Wii to use it with, the lady asked if we had one, and when we said no, proceeded to let us know they would get us one! Yesterday, Kate became the proud owner of a Wii. Unbelievable.

I'm too tired and lazy to post pics tonight. Maybe some other day. Write a comment and welcome me to this silly blogging thing, or else I'll give up and do something more productive with my time. However, I do much prefer this to cleaning toilets.